1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fishing rod which is used for fishing after a reel is mounted thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a fishing rod of a type that uses a reel, there is disposed a reel mounding device for fixing a reel to the fishing rod. The reel mounting device comprises a main body portion to be fixedly secured to (or formed integrally with) the fishing rod, and a pair of hood portions respectively including a pair of mutually opposing openings. At least one of the two hood portions is a hood portion of a movable type which can be moved back and forth by a nut member to press against the leg of the reel to thereby fixedly secure the reel to the fishing rod. However, since the reel mounting device operates in various manners in fishing, the movable hood portion can be loosened unexpectedly. A device to prevent such loosened movable hood portion is disclosed in Japanese utility Model Publication No. 2-3258 of Heisei and Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-52195 of Heisei.
In the former, an engaging projection formed in an operation ring is engaged with a rotation preventive groove formed in a screw portion to thereby prevent a screw ring (nut member) from being loosened. Also, in the latter, there is interposed a rotation preventive member between a movable seat portion (movable hood portion) and a nut portion to thereby prevent the nut portion from being loosened.
However, in the former of the above-cited conventional devices, the unexpected loosening of the screw ring can be prevented but, when removing the reel, the operation ring is operated to thereby remove the engagement of the engaging projection with the rotation preventive groove and, after then, the screw ring must be rotated. Therefore, to remove the reel, it is necessary to execute a troublesome operation. Also, in the latter, the rotation preventive member is helpful in preventing the loosening of the nut member but, if a force of a given level or more is applied to the rotation preventive member, the rotation preventive member can be loosened. In this case, if an angler is able to notice a click sound caused by the removal of the above-mentioned engagement and thus tighten the nut portion again, there can be raised no problem. However, if the click sound is too low, then the angler is not be able to notice it. That is, if the angler keeps on fishing without noticing the removal of the engagement, the casting operation can be made inaccurate or the reel can be dropped down. In the structure of the latter citation, the rotation preventive member is interposed between the movable seat portion and nut portion and is normally pressed by the movable seat portion to which a reactive force from the fixation of the reel leg is applied, thereby making it difficult to produce a loud click sound. Therefore, the angler is not be able to notice the click sound and thus the loosened condition of the rotation preventive member.
The present invention aims at eliminating the drawbacks found in the above-mentioned conventional reel mounting devices. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a fishing rod of a reel mounting type which not only is able to prevent the unexpected loosening of the fixation of the reel but also, if the reel fixation is loosened, is easy to recognize the loosened reel fixation.
In attaining the above object, according to the invention, there is provided, as a first aspect, a fishing rod of a reel mounting type which comprises: a pair of hood portions respectively disposed back and forth in such a manner that they are opposed to each other, the two hood portions respectively including openings for receiving the leg of a reel; at least one of the pair of hood portions being of a movable type, the movable hood portion being movable back and forth due to the rotation of a nut member; and, elastic mechanism and an engaging portion respectively so disposed as to extend between two of three elements, that is, a main body portion fixedly secured to a rod pipe, the above-mentioned nut member and movable hood portion, the elastic mechanism being formed in one of the above-mentioned two elements, the engaging portion being formed in the other in such a manner that the elastic mechanism can be removably engaged with the engaging portion by a given force, wherein the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is formed considerably larger than the engaging portion, or the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is formed larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion.
Here, the term xe2x80x9cmain body portionxe2x80x9d, which is fixedly secured to the rod pipe, may not be a part which is provided separately from the rod pipe, but may be an increased-thickness portion which is formed integrally with the rod pipe. Also, the term xe2x80x9cfixedly secured statexe2x80x9d may be a state in which the main body portion is fixed to the rod pipe while the reel is mounted on the fishing rod. The term xe2x80x9celastic mechanismxe2x80x9d is not always limited to a single part, for example, only a spring, but may be a combination of a part with other part. In the above-cited Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-52195 of Heisei, a combination of a coiled spring 52 with a positioning pin 51 corresponds to this. When the elastic mechanism is compared with the engaging portion which is composed of repeated up and down portions, the size of the engaging portion indicates the size of a smaller one of a down portion and an up portion included in the repeated up and down portions of the engaging portion. The term xe2x80x9cconsiderably largerxe2x80x9d means twofold or more; preferably, severalfold or more; and, more preferably, tenfold or more. The nut member and movable hood portion may be provided as separate parts and then fixed to each other, or they may be formed as an integral body, for example, by injection molding or by similar mechanism. Of course, in the latter case, there is substantially no sense in providing elastic mechanism between the nut member and movable hood portion.
According to the invention, there is provided, as a second aspect, a fishing rod of a reel mounting type, comprising: a pair of hood portions respectively disposed back and forth in such a manner that they are opposed to each other, the two hood portions respectively including openings for receiving the leg of a reel; at least one of the pair of hood portions being of a movable type, the movable hood portion being movable back and forth due to the rotation of a nut member; and, elastic mechanism disposed in one of the nut member and a main body portion fixedly secured to a rod pipe, and an engaging portion formed in the other in such a manner that the elastic mechanism can be removably engaged with the engaging portion by a given force, wherein the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is formed considerably larger than the engaging portion, or the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is formed larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion.
According to the invention, there is provided, as a third aspect, a fishing rod of a reel mounting type, comprising: a pair of hood portions respectively disposed back and forth in such a manner that they are opposed to each other, the two hood portions respectively including openings for receiving the leg of a reel; at least one of the pair of hood portions being of a movable type, the movable hood portion being movable back and forth due to the rotation of a nut member; and, elastic mechanism disposed in one of the nut member and movable hood portion, and an engaging portion formed in the other in such a manner that the elastic mechanism can be removably engaged with the engaging portion by a given force.
According to the invention, there is provided, as a fourth aspect, a fishing rod of a reel mounting type as set forth in the third aspect, wherein the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is formed considerably larger than the engaging portion, or the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is formed larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion.
According to the invention, there is provided, as a fifth aspect, a fishing rod of a reel mounting type which comprises: a pair of hood portions respectively disposed back and forth in such a manner that they are opposed to each other, the two hood portions respectively including openings for receiving the leg of a reel; at least one of the pair of hood portions being of a movable type, the movable hood portion being movable back and forth due to the rotation of a nut member; and, an elastic member removably engaged with said movable hood portion by a given force in order to be able to prevent the movement of said movable hood portion, with the elastic portion of said elastic member being formed of metal.
Now, in the first aspect of the invention, the elastic mechanism and engaging portion are so disposed as to extend between two of the main body portion, nut member and movable hood portion, that is, they are disposed in one of the following three kinds of extension or in combination of them, in particular, between the main body portion and nut member, or between the main body portion and movable hood portion, or between the nut member and movable hood portion. Since the elastic mechanism is able to hold its engagement with the engaging portion up to a given force, the unexpected loosening of the reel fixation can be prevented. Also, because the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is considerably larger in size than the engaging portion, or because the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism that is contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion, the freedom of the sound vibration of the elastic mechanism is large and thus a click sound is easy to hear. Here, the expression xe2x80x9cthe elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is considerably larger in size than the engaging portion, or the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism that is contacted with and restricted by the engaging portionxe2x80x9d simply intends to express that the freedom of the sound vibration of the elastic mechanism is large and, therefore, the invention must not be limited to such expression.
In the second aspect of the invention, the elastic mechanism and engaging portion are so disposed as to extend between the nut member and main body portion, and the elastic mechanism is able to hold its engagement with the engaging portion up to a given force. Therefore, the nut member is difficult to loosen and thus the unexpected loosening of the reel fixation can be prevented. Also, the elastic mechanism and engaging portion are respectively disposed in the nut member and main body portion or vice versa, that is, they are not disposed in the movable hood portion. This means that the movable hood portion is not influenced directly by the reactive force caused by the reel fixation. This can reduce the pressure and restriction force applied to the elastic mechanism. Further, because the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is considerably larger in size than the engaging portion, or because the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism that is contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion, the freedom of the sound vibration of the elastic mechanism is large and thus a click sound is easy to hear.
In the third aspect of the invention, the elastic mechanism and engaging portion are respectively formed in the nut member and movable hood portion and thus the movable hood portion can be influenced directly by the reactive force caused by the reel fixation. However, since the direction of the reactive force is directed mainly in the back-and-forth direction of the movable hood portion and the engagement between the elastic mechanism and engaging mechanism is executed in the diameter direction of the elastic mechanism, the influence of the back-and-force direction reactive force on the deforming direction (diameter direction) of the elastic mechanism is small. Therefore, a click sound, which is generated when the movable hood portion (and the nut member) is loosened and the elastic mechanism is thereby removed from and engaged with the engaging portion, is difficult to suffer from the influence of the reactive force, so that the freedom of the sound vibration of the elastic mechanism is large and thus the click sound generated is easy to hear.
In the fourth aspect of the invention, because the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism of the third aspect is considerably larger in size than the engaging portion, or because the free portion of the elastic mechanism not restricted by the engaging portion is larger than the portion of the elastic mechanism that is contacted with and restricted by the engaging portion, the freedom of the sound vibration of the elastic mechanism is large and thus a click sound generated is easy to hear.
In the fifth aspect of the invention, an elastic member is removably engaged with the movable hood portion by a given force in order to be able to prevent the movement of the movable hood portion. The prevention of the movement of the movable hood portion makes it possible to prevent the reel fixation from being loosened. Also, because the elastic portion of the elastic member is formed of metal, a click sound, which is generated when the reel fixation is loosened and the engagement of the elastic portion of the elastic mechanism is thereby removed, is easy to echo as well as easy to hear.
The present disclosure relates to the subject matter contained in Japanese patent application Nos. Hei. 10-166300 (filed on May 29, 1999) and 11-19401 (filed on Jan. 28, 1999), which are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.